YouTube Gets Google+ 'Hangouts' App

Google this week debuted a new YouTube app for Google+ Hangouts. To date, users have been able to start a “hangout” from a YouTube video page, but, with the new app, they can control,
save and share playlists from inside the hangout itself. “This also gives YouTube creators more ways to connect with audiences, as we work to build the best platform for the next generation of
channels,” a YouTube spokesperson tells WebProNews.

Bigger picture, “Google continues to expand the presence of Google+ throughout its other products, but it is also finding ways
to expand the presence of its other products throughout Google+,” WPN notes.

As Google software engineer Ullas Gargi explains: “Everyone can add videos in the Hangout through a
search tool in the app, or remove the videos you don’t like … All your friends in the Hangout can drag and drop videos to sort the order in the playlist, or skip forward or backward to
play the next one. Click the ‘Push to talk’ button to chat with the group to give props to the best curator, or to hand out reprimands to the friend who keeps adding the 10-hour Nyan Cat
video.” So far, Hangouts have been one of the most popular features of Google+, which, admittedly, isn’t saying much for the usage-starved service.